I. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication, and more specifically to techniques for sending signaling information in a wireless communication system.
II. Background
A wireless multiple-access communication system can support communication for multiple terminals on the downlink and uplink. The downlink (or forward link) refers to the communication link from the base stations to the terminals, and the uplink (or reverse link) refers to the communication link from the terminals to the base stations. Multiple terminals may simultaneously receive data and signaling on the downlink and/or transmit data and signaling on the uplink. This may be achieved by multiplexing the transmissions on each link to be orthogonal to one another and/or by controlling the transmit power of each transmission to achieve a desired received signal quality.
A multiple-access system typically allocates some system resources for sending signaling information on the downlink to the terminals. The signaling information may be for various parameters used to support data transmission, such as resource assignment, coding and modulation scheme, etc. The amount of signaling information to send may be dependent on various factors such as the manner in which system resources are assigned, the number of parameters to send, the desired flexibility in sending the parameters, etc. Signaling messages may be generated for all defined parameters and sent using the system resources allocated for sending signaling information.
It is desirable to send signaling information as efficiently as possible since this information represents overhead. It is desirable to send a given amount of signaling information using as little system resources as possible or to send more signaling information for a given amount of system resources.